For the first time a top Communist Party...

UNUSUAL GESTURE.

December 25, 1986

LJUBLJANA, YUGOSLAVIA — UNUSUAL GESTURE. For the first time a top Communist Party official in Yugoslavia has made a public ''Happy Christmas'' greeting. Joze Smole, president of the Socialist Alliance of the Yugoslav Republic of Slovenia, appeared on a television news program. Religious observances are permitted in Yugoslavia, but Christmas is not recognized as a public holiday by the Communist authorities. Slovenia, one of the six republics making up Yugoslavia, is largely Roman Catholic.